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Instagram investing in NFT support with digital collectibles feature, available now for select creators

Instagram, the photo sharing social network that lacks the resources required to develop an iPad app, is developing support for NFTs. The Facebook-turned-Meta-owned service admits that supporting decentralized technology on a centralized platform is a huge effort, but Instagram has the resources to spare!

The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, delivered the non-fungible news today in a calm and collected digital video that almost makes you think this makes sense.

“This week we’re beginning to test digital collectibles with a handful of US creators and collectors who will be able to share NFTs on Instagram. There will be no fees associated with posting or sharing a digital collectible on IG,” says Mosseri.

And maybe it does make sense. Facebook is diving head first into the metaverse pool, and NFTs might make for the perfect pool toys. I actually don’t know because it’s all a level of abstraction beyond my basic imagination that can only think up seeing my Instagram feed on a tablet-sized screen.

If NFT support on Instagram is actually something that scratches an itch for you, these are the details:

  • available for select creators and collectors;
  • blockchain support includes Ethereum and Polygon;
  • wallet support includes Rainbow, MetaMask, and Trust

And that’s about as much NFT talk as I can pretend to understand for now. Follow this helpful Twitter thread from Meta’s Alexandru Voica while I prepare to tell my great grandkids that “back in my day, Instagram was a place for posting pictures.”

As ever, the company position on a proper Instagram for iPad app is that “it would be nice to do, but there’s a lot to do and only so many people, so it hasn’t made the cut,” according to Mosseri. But yay NFTs, right?

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Avatar for Zac Hall Zac Hall

Zac covers Apple news, hosts the 9to5Mac Happy Hour podcast, and created SpaceExplored.com.

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